The dermal papilla is known to playa major role in influencing the form and dynamics of the hair follicle, which probably involves regulatory substances crossing the basal lamina. But little is known about the junctions between the dermal papilla and the surrounding epithelial cells of the hair bulb, or between the connective tissue and the epithelial cells on the outside of the hair follicle. This study was performed to identify the ultrastructural differences between dermoepidermal junction of the skin and connective tissue-epithelial junctions on the outside of the hair follicle and around the dermal papilla of normal anagen hair follicles in the human fetal scalp skin. Electron microscopic findings of dermoepidermal junction in scalp skin showed that basal lamina was very irregular and undulated, and it contained many attachment plaques of hemidesmosomes with sub-basal dense plates, tonofilaments, and anchoring filaments. Also invaginations of plasma membrane of basal keratinocytes were seen. There were clear differences both on the outside of the follicle and around the dermal papilla as compared with similar junction in the skin. In particular, neither hemidesmosomes nor tonofilaments, as seen in dermoepidermal junction, were observed in the dermal papilla. Also attachment plaque, sub-basal dense plate and anchoring filaments were not observed at the junction on the outside of the follicle and the dermal papilla. There were some differences between connective tissue-epithelial junctions on the outside of the hair follicle and around the dermal papilla, ie, smoothness of basal lamina and orthogonal arrangement of collagen fibers were seen in the outside of hair follicle, but not in the dermal papilla. These results indicate that the mechanical connection between the hair follicle and the connective tissue component is much weaker than that between the corresponding components in skin, and it reflects the dynamic processes during the anagen phase of the hair follicle compared to the relatively permanent state of the epidermis.